JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
Catholic University of America Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to The Catholic Historical Review
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
The
Catholic Historical Review
VOLUME III JANUARY, 1918 NUMBER 4
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
The Philippine Islands occupy an unique position in the
Oriental Tropics. They are the only extensive land area of the
Orient, the great majority of the native inhabitants of which
profess the Christian religion. With the exception of the Mo
hammedans of the southern islands and the so-called wild or
pagan peoples living chiefly in Luzon and Mindanao, the Philip
pine peoples (almost homogeneously) profess to follow the re
ligion of Christ as expounded by the Roman Catholic Church.
This is all the more striking, if one bears in mind the paganism and
Mohammedanism of other nearby islands and mainland coun
tries, and the religions of China and Japan.
The prime motif in the evangelization of these islands is
found in Pope Alexander VI's mandates contained in the much
discussed Bulls of May 3 and 4, 1493, twenty-eight years before
the discovery of the Philippine Archipelago by Magellan. The
Bull Inter Caetera, of May 4, after granting permission to the
Spanish sovereigns to make discoveries and conquests under
certain conditions, straitly enjoins the following:
Moreover we command you in virtue of holy obedience that, employ
ing all due diligence in the premises, as you promise, nor do we doubt
your compliance therein to the best of your loyalty and royal greatness
of spirit, you send to the aforesaid mainlands and islands worthy, God
fearing, learned, skilled, and experienced men, in order to instruct the
aforesaid inhabitants and dwellers therein in the Catholic faith and train
them in good morals.'
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
376 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
but with little real effect; for the wholesale baptisms performed
by the secular priest who accompanied the expedition were re
garded by the people rather as a spectacular entertainment
staged for their benefit than as a rite designed to mark a spiritual
rebirth. Of the ceremony, the only remembrance at the time
of the Legazpi expedition was the small image of the Child
Jesus which had been presented to the chief's wife at her urgent
request "to keep in place of her idols,"2 and which was regarded
by the people with a reverence born of ignorance and superstition.
The real evangelization began with the Legazpi expedition,
which through its establishment of the Spanish settlement of
Cebu in 1565, and that of Manila in 1571, also marks the begin
ning of continuous Philippine-European relations. Coincident
with the military and civil foundations entered the religious, for
it can never be charged against the Spanish Crown that it failed
to make provision for the fulfilment of the religious duty out
lined by Alexander VI. This first organized attempt to convert
the heathen of the new Oriental possessions was entrusted by
royal order to the Augustinians. The religious warrant estab
lishing the first branch of that order in the Philippines was issued
from the Augustinian convent of Culhuacan in the City of Mexico
in 1564, some months before the departure of the Legazpi ex
pedition. By it the missionaries were charged
to announce the all-holy gospel of Christ to all races, baptizing them
that believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost; training them in the Holy Catholic Faith, on the same lines on
which the faithful are trained by our cherished mother the Church of
Rome, shunning utterly therein all novelty of doctrine, which we desire
shall in all things conform to the holy and ecumenical councils and
doctrines acknowledged by the same Church; teaching them especially
that obedience which all Christians owe to the supreme Pontiff and the
Church of Rome-which in truth is always the leader, head, and mistress
of all the other churches of the world-then to their lawful rulers and
masters; teaching them at the same time to live under the yoke and
discipline of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and to forget, moreover, their
old-time superstitions and errors of the Devil.3
2 BR, Vol. xxxiii, pp. 159-161 (Pigafetta's Journal), and Vol. iii, p. 180.
'BR., Vol. ii, p. 166.
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 377
4 Many writers continually fall into the error of confusing the terms "friar"
and "monk," which they use synonymously, calling the members of the Mendicant
Orders, and even the Jesuits, "monks."
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
378 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
the women's orders that were established in the islands, because
of lack of space.
The regulars and the Jesuits did not, even in these early days,
form the whole ecclesiastical organization of the Philippines.
As noted above, the friars and members of the Company of
Jesus were sent over as missionaries, with the function of teach
ing emphasized in the case of the latter. It was the intention of
the Spanish Crown, oft expressed in royal decrees, to replace the
missionaries of any community with secular priests, as soon as
an advance was made beyond the purely mission stage, so that
the former might go on to new mission fields or retire to their
convents. This end was never reached to any very great degree,
for but few seculars were sent over from Spain or Mexico, and
whenever the substitution was seriously considered in Spain or
the Philippines, it gave rise to great commotion and confusion
in the islands; so much so, in fact, that the friars threatened
to desert the archipelago altogether.5
Although the secular clergy themselves played a minor part
in the ecclesiastical history of the archipelago, the secular forms
of Church government did, on the other hand, exercise consider
able weight, and that from an early period. In the beginning of
Spanish colonization, the Church government was made an
appanage of the metropolitan see of New Spain, just as the civil
government was placed under the supervision of the viceroy of
that important colony. In 1578, upon petition of the Spanish
monarch, Pope Gregory XIII created the see of Manila which
was declared to be suffragan to the Archbishopric of New Spain;6
and in 1595, Manila, by another papal bull, became itself an
archiepiscopal city, while other bulls erected the three suffragan
episcopates of Nueva Segovia, Cebu, and Neuva Caceres.7
As hinted above, the ecclesiastical policy of the Philippines
was largely shaped by the influence of the religious orders. Of
the twenty-five archbishops of the islands, fourteen belonged to
either one of the four regular orders aforesaid, one belonged to
I The two most remarkable occasions were during the terms of Archbishop
Camacho (1696-1712) and Santa Justa y Rufina (1767-1787).
6 BR, Vol. iv, pp. 119-124.
7 BR, Vol. ix, pp. 150-153.
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 379
the order of the Hieronomites, one was a Trinitarian, one a
member of the Escuelas Pias (Pious Schools), and only eight
were seculars. Since on the whole, as seen above, compara
tively few secular priests were sent from Spain or Mexico, and
the native priesthood, with rare exceptions, did not rise to the
dignity of the higher offices,8 members of the religious corpora
tions served also in the capacity of parish priests. Such priests,
therefore, held a dual allegiance, namely, that to the head of
their order, and that to the immediate secular head-the arch
bishop or one of the suffragan bishops-to the first with regard
to the conventual rule, and to the second with regard to the
right of episcopal visit. Whenever, as was most frequently the
case, the immediate head of the secular machinery was a regular,
there was little disturbance in the statu quo, so far as the epis
copal visitation was concerned; but when the secular clergy were
in control of the archbishopric, this question came immediately
to the front (unless, as was sometimes the case, the secular
ecclesiastical officials were under the influence of the regulars),
and, then, sometimes, there was little chance for peace and
harmony.
It is not our present intention to outline the history of the
several ecclesiastical units in the Philippines, nor their relations
among themselves or with the civil and military authorities.
The above short and imperfect sketch of the ecclesiastical ma
chinery of which Spain made use in its colonization of the Philip
pines must supply in some manner the background to the re
mainder of this paper. Much has been written pro and con on
the subject of the friars and the Jesuits in the Philippines, their
points of excellency, and their quarrels with each other and
with the governors or other officials.@ The close relationship of
8 One of the remarkable exceptions was the election in 1862 of Dr. Pedro Pelaez,
a Filipino secular priest, to govern the Archbishopric of Manila after the death of
Archbishop Aranguren, an Augustinian Recollect. He held this post only slightly
over a month, when the regularly-appointed incumbent arrived.
' For interesting matter touching this question, see the following titles: ANTONIO
DE MORGA, Report of Conditions in the Philippines, in BR, Vol. x, pp. 75-102;
EDUARDO NAVABRO, O.S.A., Estudio de algunos asuntos de actualidad (Valladolid,
1897); The Friar Memorial of 1898 to the Spanish King, in BR, Vol. lxii, pp.
227-286; ELIDIo ZAMORA, O.S.A., Las Corporaciones religiosas en Filipinas (Vallado
lid, 1901), and CHARLES H. CUNNINGHAM, Origin of the Friar Lands in Question in
the Philippines, in American Political Science Review, Vol. x, August, 1916, pp. 465
480. Other matter will readily be found in bibliographical lists.
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
380 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 381
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
382 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 383
Faith does not mean that the old forms and beliefs were dis
carded in their entirety, nor that they have yet altogether dis
appeared. Filipinos (and it must of course be premised that
the ignorant masses of the people are here meant) see no incon
gruity in blending together the old and the new. There is still
to be seen in all parts the persistence of the older religious belief.
Certain trees are still held in reverence, and the ignorant and
superstitious tao or peasant would not even think of cutting one
down or of digging about it. Ile will do so at the command of
those in authority but never of his own accord. Caves are still
the mysterious abodes of the spirits. Supernatural beings still
inhabit the mountains; and the disastrous eruption of the vol
cano of Taal near Manila a few years ago, was ascribed by many
to the spirit or god of the volcano. Rather elaborate ceremonies
are still performed in many places at birth and death, at planting
and harvest times, and upon other occasions. Mr. Emerson B.
Christie, for a number of years engaged in ethnological work in
the Philippines, and who has made a thorough study of the
Iloco people, says that it is not unusual for a person immediately
after attending Mass with all the devotion that can be desired, to
go to the window of his house where the following exhortation
is addressed to the spirits:
"Umaikayon, appo umaikayon umaikai amin amin, dagiti pilai
obbaenyo, dagiti bulsek kibinenyo."'1
Sacrifices are still performed in some outlying districts under
cover of the night with almost identically the same ceremonies
as those described by Pigafetta in his Journal of the Magellan
expedition; but some of these ceremonies while performed and
attended by persons who profess Christianity are doubtless
largely due to the influence of nearby pagans, and many of those
attending are probably what are known as "new Christians"
that is, recent converts from paganism of a recent generation.
In all parts of the islands, there is still a firm belief in the asuang,
an evil spirit or witch, and murders still occasionally occur of
persons who are believed to be asuang. Only two or three years
and the Moros (Mohammedans) are all included under the term "Non-Christians,"
and all the native peoples collectively under the term "Philippine peoples."
1 In English: "Come now, come now, sirs, come, come all, all, let the lame have
themselves carried, let the blind be led."
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
384 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
ago, the belief was current among the ignorant people of several
of the districts of Manila that an American Negro was possessed
by an asuang, and that he was nightly changed into a large black
dog. Other familiar spirits, the remnants of old beliefs that
formed a part of the early indigenous life, cause only a lesser
degree of apprehension than in the old days.'2 It is true, that
as the old fear is removed by education and the advance of en
lightenment, the former beliefs and stories are assuming the
guise of folklore, and are often told to children for moral effect.
Instances such as the above, and the list might be extended
ad libitum, have a decided significance in the religious life of today.
They prove that at times the Christian faith was an overlay on
the old native beliefs and superstitions. More than that, the
superstitious Filipino has only too often manufactured new
superstitions from the Christian faith which he has adopted, or
it might be more accurate to say that he has adapted the old
superstitions to terms of Christianity. It could not well be
otherwise. For instance, the people of one section reverse an
image of the Virgin known as Our Lady of Pefafrancia, which is
said to be of pure gold and to possess the miraculous power of
continual growth. The image itself is never seen, in place of
it a wooden image is exhibited at the annual fiesta. As a
climax to the annual celebration, in which the native clergy
participate, the image is placed aboard a catamaran, which is
slowly poled downstream. The people believe that anyone
touching even the catamaran will be healed of all manner of
infirmities and diseases. Accordingly, all the infirm gather
along the shore, and as the catamaran glides by, throw them
selves into the water in order to touch the vessel. The ceremony
of the flagellation, which is performed annually in a small hamlet
near Manila, brings in another element, namely, the vicious.
Started at first by the missionaries in all devotion, it has de
generated partly into a special ceremony of the vicious class,
who imagine that its practice ensures them success in their
crimes. Consequently, this ceremony is now frowned upon by
the clergy, but it is dying hard.
12 The persistence of old beliefs is seen in the everyday world as well as in the
religious. A boy in the public schools in Manila, after reciting very correctly a
question as to the form of the world remarked that of course it was flat.
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 385
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
386 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
not yet fully known), in which he played off one side against the
other with considerable astuteness. Shortly after the beginning
of American control, Aglipay finally split with the ecclesiastical
authorities, and largely through the influence of a fellow-country
man, Isabelo de los Reyes, a layman of considerable force of
character, though lacking in balance, headed a new church known
as the Aglipay or Independent Filipino Church. An effort was
made to give the new institution a national character, which
caused the government to fear that, under cover of religion, the
Filipinos were plotting a new revolt against American authority.
The movement spread like wildfire at first. The majority of
the masses and some of the upper-class people of the two Iloco
provinces joined the schism, which also numbered followers in
almost all the islands in which Christianity was professed. At
one time Aglipay claimed over 3,000,000 adherents, but this was
doubtless a gross exageration. In many places, however, whole
congregations of the Roman Catholic Church went over to the
new sect, and other congregations were violently split apart.
The schismatics attempted to take possession of the churches
and other church property, but they were compelled by law to
return them to their former owner, the Roman Catholic Church.
At the inception of the movement, Aglipay and Reyes consulted
the Protestants, especially the Methodists who had gone to the
Philippines shortly after the capture of Manila, and considerable
advice was received from that quarter, as well as from the Epis
copalians. But the movement soon grew beyond control, and
Reyes by his dominating personality gave the new church a
direction that it never would have taken under the sole tutelage
of Aglipay. To Reyes, in fact, are due very largely the Constitu
tion, the so-called Bible of the Filipino Independent Church,
the Catechism, and other literature published under the auspices
of the new organization, much of which is a curiously puerile
mass of contradictory, plagiarized, and undigested material.
In his efforts to depart as far as possible from the tenets of the
old Church, Reyes obligated the Aglipay Church (on paper) to
a course broader in many ways than that of the most radical
Unitarian Church. In real practice, however, the ceremonies
of the schismatic church, except possibly in one or two instances,
have never deviated in any essential from those of the Catholic
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 387
Church, and the same Mass may be heard today in both churches.
The Catholic Church has maintained on the whole, aside from
its effort to regain possession of its property, a laissez-faire
policy in regard to the schismatic church, and it is possibly
partly due to this fact that the movement has greatly died out
with the return of many of its adherents to the bosom of Mother
Church. But it cannot be denied that the schism was a matter
of deep concern to the Church, for Archbishop Harty, until
quite recently the head of the Manila Diocese and of the Church
in the Philippines, remarked to the writer in 1910 that it was
only the Providence of God that had saved the Catholic faith
in the Philippine Islands.
Mention was made above of the Protestant sects. One of
the results of the Treaty of Paris, of December, 1898, was free
dom of religious worship in the Philippines, with the complete
separation of Church and State, in imitation of the American
plan. Various Protestant sects entered the islands almost imme
diately and today the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Baptists, and Disciples, all have establishments in the islands,
each, except the last named, being assigned, by mutual agree
ment, special districts in which to work. Besides ministering to
American and European Protestants, these sects are said to have
about 200,000 adherents among the natives, but some of these
must be regarded as uncertain quantities because of the char
acteristic instability noted above. That there will ever be any
great defection from the Catholic Church is extremely proble
matical, for notwithstanding any racial traits, three centuries
of constant teaching cannot be readily set aside.
On the other hand, the Aglipay schism and the presence of the
Protestant sects have not been without a quickening influence on
Catholicism, for they have aided by the very fact of their being
part of the great task that confronted the American Catholic
clergy, namely, the establishment of the Church in the Philip
pines on the American basis, and the correction of those unde
sirable conditions that have grown up during the years of Spanish
control when the Church, being itself a part of the body politic,
was injured by the very fact of that too intimate connection.
The competition has served a good end for Catholicism, as it has
thus been placed on its mettle in a way it might never have
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
388 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 389
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
390 JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CATHOLICISM IN THE PHILIPPINES 391
presses were established in the convents of the various orders.
A study of any of the standard bibliographies of the Philippines
will show many titles that came from these presses.
Not so well known as the religious and educational work of
the missionaries and parish priests is their promotion of work in
other lines. They have had an immense influence in the transfer
of animals and plants to the Philippines from Spain and Mexico.
From the very beginning they took interest in agriculture, and
introducted many new things into the islands. The history of the
agricultural accomplishments of the Spanish clergy in the Philip
pines is worth an entire paper rather than these few lines. Other
public improvements were introduced by the religious and secular
priests. They built roads and bridges, convents and churches,
and engaged in various industrial activities. At times they led
their flocks against the hostile Moros. They accompanied the
conquistadors on their expeditions, where with unflinching cour
age, they administered the rites of the church in the very face
of death. They advanced from the Philippines to the mission
fields of China and Japan and other nearby places, and both
within and without the islands, they showed that martyrdom
could be robbed of its terrors and made glorious. Above all, the
work of the Spanish priests in the Philippines is a work that can
lbe built upon by American Catholics, and Catholicism has no
cause to hide its head because of mistakes made by its human
agents, because a great work was done and there is yet a great
work to be done in the Philippine Islands.
JAMES ALEXANDER ROBERTSON.
This content downloaded from 112.200.202.215 on Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:36:02 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms